These Streets
by nightowl880
Summary: Natsu and Lucy have a long history. He loved her, she stabbed him. Now Lucy wants Natsu to come back to the gang, but... Natsu doesn't want these streets anymore. AU oneshot (plus newly added prequel). Dedicated to WhiteWinterStar and FatalityMass.
1. Chapter 1

**I got the idea for this oneshot from a song called These Streets by Bastille. And I'm dedicating it to WhiteWinterStar, who really deserves one for reviewing every chapter of Just Friends even though they must run out of things to say. I hope you like it.**

Natsu Dragneel slid the rag inside the wet glass, wiping away the clear drops of water tracing their way down the rim. He didn't lift his head as the door opened and shut again. Footsteps sounded on the wooden floor, and a chair scraped against the scarred floorboards. "Natsu." The raven-haired man sighed, brushing his hair out of his eyes, his fingers tracing the scar on his forehead.

"Gray." The two men stayed there in silence, avoiding each other's eyes and breathing quietly in the empty bar. "It's been a long time," Natsu said finally, setting down the last of the clean glasses. "How's the gang doing these days?"

"It's been going bad ever since you left," Gray replied, his voice low and heavy with regret. He didn't need to say anything more – Natsu understood the meaning behind his words.

Natsu stared down at the rough wooden bar counter. A puddle of water lay there, shining in the dim light. Memories slid across the surface of the water, dragging Natsu into the past...

_The gang used to hang out in an old abandoned warehouse. It wasn't much, but it was home. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza, and everyone else were laughing together, drinking and having a good time. Gildarts, the boss, had come in with an unusually serious look on his scarred face. He called over Natsu and Lucy, two of his lieutenants. He had a job for them and a few of the others, he said. A rival gang coming in on their territory. Natsu had grinned and cracked his knuckles, ready for a fight. Gray and Erza agreed to come along, and together the four of them had beaten the crap out of the rookie gang. They had never seen them coming._

_That was when everything went sour, and that was the moment that would be imprinted on Natsu's memory for the rest of his life. Lucy sent the other two back to base first, saying she wanted to talk to Natsu about something important. Once they were gone, she didn't say a word. Just walked up to Natsu there in the enemy gang's hideout, kissed him fiercely, and shoved a knife in his gut. The last thing Natsu remembered before losing consciousness was the sight of Lucy walking away, her back fading into the afternoon sunlight. She walked with the air of a woman who had won a war at great sacrifice._

_Later, Natsu found out that his younger sister Wendy came looking for him and found him dying in a pool of his own blood. She called an ambulance and managed to get him to the hospital in time to save his life._

_After the incident, Natsu got a job at the bar and began saving up money. He couldn't quite escape from the woman he had loved, though. The bar was at the end of the street Lucy lived, directly on her way to the gang hideout. Every day, he passed her as she came home and he left the bar. They never spoke, never looked at each other, never made a sound. Turning their backs on each other was all they could do._

"Natsu." He glanced up from the water at Gray, who was contemplating his callused hands intently. "Do you ever wish you could come back? Undo what she did to you?"

"What she did was part of the life," Natsu replied. "I don't blame her. Power was what she wanted, and power was what she got." He stared at the top of Gray's head until his old friend lifted his eyes to meet Natsu's. "She was a true friend, Gray. After all, she never came at me from the back. She faced me head on." He sighed and picked up a wet cloth, beginning to wipe down the bar. "I have a real job now, you know? Wendy can rely on me to pay her college bills and not accidentally get killed. I'm happy here, in this bar. Life is simpler here."

Gray stood, pushing his stool back. "She wanted me to kill you," he said slowly, turning his back on Natsu and shoving his hands into his pockets. "If you said no. I think she knew you would. But that's not what she said. She said, 'do what feels right.'" He chuckled, walking to the door. "See you around, Natsu." The door opened and closed with the quiet sound of the latch falling into place. It was a final sound, a sound that said, _this is the end. This war is over._

Ten minutes later, Natsu was closing the bar and heading home. He had some things to do. As he turned the corner of the empty street, a breeze carried a familiar scent to him. Vanilla and cinnamon, just like it had smelled that day and every day since. The blonde kept her head down as they passed each other, hunching her shoulders slightly. When he had taken several more steps, Natsu stopped.

"Talked to Gray today," he said conversationally, just loud enough for her to hear him. Her fingers clenched into a fist where he couldn't see, but she stopped too. "You should know it's too late for things like that, Luce." The affectionate nickname made her flinch. "Something about you," he continued, not paying attention, "Something about you won't let me forget you. Stupid, huh?" He gazed up at the cloudy sky like he could see the stars and was counting every one. "You haunt this place. I see you everywhere I go. It's driving me nuts."

"I don't know what you're saying," the blonde said unsteadily, "But you should knock it off before I get angry. I really will kill you this time."

"Aw, don't say that, Luce," he protested laughingly. "I know it's the same for you. You can't think of anything else when you're out here, right? Like there's a shadow of the past hanging over this place."

"All I think about when I'm out here is gang matters, which don't concern you anymore," she insisted, her voice shaking. "Unless I'm mistaken and you said yes after all?" The tone of her voice begged for that to be true.

"I don't want that stuff anymore, Luce." Natsu's gaze returned to the pavement, and he took a step forward. "You wanted these streets, and now you have them. You can't go back and change it now."

Lucy whirled around, tears in her eyes, fists clenched tightly. "Natsu!" He was already walking away, only his silhouette visible in the lamplight.

"Don't worry, Lucy. I won't show my face here anymore." His tone lifted a little. "I finally have enough money to move out of this town. These streets, the gang, I'm leaving everything to you. Just like you wanted."

"Natsu!" she repeated, but her feet wouldn't move. She couldn't follow him. "Natsu!" His laugh echoed through the night, and like he was some god of the sky commanding the weather to bend to his will, the clouds parted to reveal a full moon.

"This time, you can watch me walk away from the battlefield, Lucy," he said, his words vanishing into the cool air between them almost as soon as he said them, leaving Lucy with only a vague shadow of his parting words.

Long after her old best friend and bitter rival had disappeared into the unreachable distance, Lucy sank onto the freezing concrete and cried, as the full moon kept a solemn vigil over the broken world of a fragmented love.

**So, what'd you think? Was it good? I banged this out in a couple of hours, so who knows. Remember to favorite, follow, and leave a review! (It's super easy, in case you didn't know – all you have to do is type in the text box just below this and then hit the button. Even if you're not logged in or don't have an account.) Love you guys!**

**Giselle**


	2. Chapter 2: Prequel

**So I wrote a prequel. Dunno if it's any good, but I wrote one. This is basically something of an explanation of why Lucy wanted power, and how she felt about it. I wrote it in her POV. It was a request from FatalityMass, so that's who it's dedicated to. Thanks to DarkRose358, LordDeuce, Kosmotius, M8UW0T (did I get that right?), and 1 Guest. I know, I'm sorry it wasn't very nice like my other fics. This one might not be very nice either... I'm sorry.**

**Remember to review, favorite, and follow!**

I walked into the hideout, exhausted, only to be greeted by a familiar scene. Natsu and Gray were fighting again. Insults flew, getting worse by the second, and usually accompanied by fists. Gajeel sat on a crate, grinning evilly and egging the two on. Cana ducked past me to whisper briefly with Macao and Wakaba before accepting several bills from each. I sighed and collapsed into a folding chair in a corner, rubbing my fingertips over my temples. My eyes slid closed. I had a headache and my muscles were screaming in pain, because I had been out all night keeping guard at the western edge of our territory. We'd been having issues with a rival gang encroaching on our territory. I couldn't count on one hand the number of rookie pups that had tried to get past me. I'd had to beat every one of them to a pulp and drop them off in the middle of neutral territory, which had taken forever. Do you know how heavy an unconscious eighteen-year-old guy is? Too damn heavy to carry halfway across town through back alleys and people's yards at three a.m. when you haven't had any decent sleep in twenty-four hours and you don't have time to grab coffee.

And now I couldn't even relax at our base because two first-class idiots were starting World War Numbskull ten yards from where I sat. Just as I was about to heave myself out of my folding chair and go knock some heads, a familiar voice cut through the fog in my brain. Then came the resounding echo of two empty skulls being knocked together, and finally, blessed quiet. Thank God for Erza. Wrapped in relative peace, I sank lower in my chair and prepared for fourteen straight hours of sleep.

"Listen up!" My eyes popped open of their own volition and I sat up reluctantly. When Gildarts wanted your attention, he got it, or you got dead. "Lucy, Natsu, I want to talk to you two about something in five." I groaned, but slowly peeled myself away from my uncomfortable haven and staggered sleepily in the direction of Gildarts's makeshift office.

"Luce!" I turned around, blinking blearily. I wasn't going to be fully awake until I had gotten enough sleep, or at least some extra-strong coffee. "Luce!" Natsu said again, catching up to me with a huge grin on his face. I swear, that grin could make you forgive him for burning your house down (which actually was a possibility – Natsu had a terrifying love of arson). But in the next moment, all I had eyes for was the extra-super-jumbo-sized coffee cup he had in his hand. My mouth watered, and I reached for the drink of the gods unconsciously.

"Is that... mine?" His grin widened and he pushed it into my hands.

"Thought you might need it. Good work last night." I put it to my mouth and swallowed, burning my tongue. "How many did you get on your end?" I licked my lips and smiled.

"Thanks, I needed this. Would you believe seven of them came? And I had to lug them all across town by myself." I took another gulp of coffee, shaking my head. "So not fair. How about you? You were on duty too, right?" We started walking towards the curtain Gildarts had hung in the corner farthest from the door and declared his 'office'. Natsu held up his hands, ticking off fingers.

"Three... Five... Eight... Twelve, I think? If you don't count the ones Elfman was chasing that I took care of." He grinned at me again. "You got seven, huh? That's pretty rough." I was still gaping at him when we pushed aside a corner of the curtain and entered the office. Gildarts sat with his back to us in a spinny chair that no longer spun that he'd found at a dump. I think it used to have wheels, too, but they had been taken off when he found it.

"Sit, you two." We sat on wooden crates in front of a desk made of the same crates. Gildarts turned to face us, which involved lots of grunting and the ear-splitting sound of plastic screeching against concrete. When he eventually managed to get his chair the way he wanted it, he folded his hands seriously on top of his desk. "So, as I said, I have something to talk to you two about." He cleared his throat, then coughed. I swallowed another mouthful of coffee and surveyed our gang's boss. Gildarts Clive wasn't a big man, but he was tall, and he had the sort of face that made you think twice before making him mad. His torso was wrapped in all sorts of bandages from pasts fights, and scars crisscrossed every square inch of visible skin. He wore a torn, ragged brown cloak that went to his ankles and made a cool swishing sound when he walked. "It's about your positions as my lieutenants." My attention snapped back to his face. Was he promoting us? Demoting us? Gildarts steepled his fingers and looked us in the eye. "Laxus is going to take care of his grandfather back in his hometown." My eyes widened. Laxus Dreyar was the boss's right-hand man, and a shoe-in for our new leader if something ever happened to Gildarts. You couldn't get a position higher or more powerful than his except if you were the actual boss. "He won't be back. As my lieutenants, you two are the best candidates for the position." I set my coffee cup on the table, exhaustion forgotten.

"Please give me the position, Boss." He held up his hands.

"Well, hang on a minute. Natsu is just as strong as you are, Lucy, if not stronger. If he weren't such an idiot, there wouldn't be a choice. However, you are strong, and you have brains. Not to mention... Other assets," he added, his eyes trailing downwards not-so subtly. I glared at him, and he laughed. "Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood. But the fact remains that each of you has something the other doesn't. You have a week to convince me that your abilities are better suited to being my right hand. That's all. You're dismissed." He scooted his chair around again, making Natsu snort. I stood sharply and left, abandoning my coffee on the desk. Natsu's footsteps followed me outside, onto the street.

"Hey Luce, wait up!" he called. I stopped, arms folded. I didn't turn around.

"What do you want, Natsu? I have things to do." He put a hand on my shoulder.

"Luce, you know, I..." He sighed. "I don't want this to come between us. The promotion, I mean." I spun to face him, plastering a fake smile on my lips. It hurt.

"What are you talking about, stupid? Of course it won't! We'll always be friends." Genuine relief lit up his face, and the pain of holding that smile in place multiplied by a hundred.

"Really?" He swept me into a hug before I could protest. My toes didn't quite touch the ground, and all I could think was, has Natsu always been so tall? "I'm so glad, Luce." Eventually he let me down, and with a last smile and a wave, he disappeared back into the warehouse. Alone, I tried to catch my breath.

_What was that?_

It didn't matter, I decided. It didn't matter, because even if we were friends, he was in my way. I wanted to be Gildarts's right hand. I wanted to be that strong, that powerful. Then I could finally show my father that he had no control over me anymore. I wasn't the cowering little girl watching her dreams being crushed under her father's heel. I was Lucy of Fairy Tail. I was _Lucy_. I was strong.

So when the job came two days later, I knew what I had to do. I was ready.

I ignored the images filling my head – _Natsu grinning like I had made his day, Natsu giving me coffee, Natsu hugging me until I couldn't breathe_ – and focused on the task at hand. Erza, Gray, Natsu and I were standing in an empty warehouse at the edge of town, in the center of a ring of gang kids, members of the rival group that had been chomping at the bit lately. To my left, Natsu cracked his knuckles, a devilish grin stretching across his face. I quickly looked to my right, where Erza and Gray had similar smiles on their lips, preparing themselves to take down whatever enemies came at them.

It was over pretty soon, in a flurry of fists and flashing blades and teeth. We each had our own pile of bodies – Erza's was probably the biggest. Natsu's was a close second, though. He cracked his neck and stretched. "Alrighty then. Let's head back!" I stepped in front of him just as he made to go.

"Wait, I have something to talk to you about. Erza, Gray, you guys go ahead and go back first." They shrugged and walked out, leaving us alone. I waited, telling myself it was to make sure they didn't come back, but really it was to steel myself. _Don't think about it. This is what you have to do. This is to get past your father._ I started walking towards him, every step causing a ripple somewhere deep in my chest.

"Luce, what is–" My lips locked with his, and before my heart could stop my head, I shoved my knife into his gut. He choked and gasped, and I yanked the blade out. Blood spilled out of the second mouth I'd opened in his gut as I backed up and let him fall to the floor with a sickening thud.

_I'm sorry._

I couldn't say those words out loud. I couldn't say anything.

I turned and walked away, slowly. As slowly as I could, trying to draw out the moment of painful regret. I deserved every second and more.

_I'm sorry, Natsu._

This was necessary, I reminded myself. _This was for the little girl shut up in her room while she replayed every time her father shouted at her, every moment she had been beaten down. This was to be strong._

But no matter what I told myself, I couldn't shake the feeling that I hadn't gotten what I wanted.

**Okay, so did it ruin the original oneshot for you? I was worried it might. Please let me hear your thoughts! Review, favorite, follow. You know the drill.**


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